Seventy-six percent of Americans said they oppose universities factoring in race in selecting students, the key element in affirmative action programs in post-secondary institutions nationwide.

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of the University of Texas at Austin's admissions policy, which allows administrators to consider race in admitting about 25 percent of the freshman class.

The broad opposition to affirmative action crosses parties and race, results indicated. Nearly eight in 10 whites and African-Americans, and nearly seven in 10 Hispanics said they oppose allowing universities to use race as a factor.

Sixty-three percent of Americans said they support extending federal benefits to same-sex couples who are legally married in states where they live and 57 percent said they support legal same-sex marriage in general.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews with 1,007 adults June 5-9. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.

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